Paris And Los Angeles Will Score Summer Olympics 2024 And 2028

Andrew Bender
, ContributorI delve into the business of business travel, and often the fun too.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

These are unusual times, and unusual times call for unusual measures. That's no less true for the International Olympic Committee, which voted last week to award two consecutive summer games at once instead of at the usual four-year interval. The result: Paris and Los Angeles will host the games in 2024 and 2028, probably in that order.

Los Angeles and Paris will be the host cities for the 2024 and 2028 Olympic games, though probably not in that order. (AP Photo/File)

I.O.C. President Thomas Bach said in a press conference on June 9 that the L.A. and Paris bids represent "a golden opportunity for the Olympic Games and for the I.O.C."

Here's why: Good host cities are hard to find, especially those that can remain solvent through the ordeal of hosting the Olympics. Bach called L.A. and Paris, the last remaining candidates for the 2024 games, "two such great cities…promoting the Olympic games and the Olympic spirit in such a great way."

Both cities also plan to use what Bach calls a record number of existing facilities, as opposed to building stadiums, Olympic villages and more that may then go unused after the games. "This is something that we have not seen before," which "will make the games more sustainable and more feasible."

France's Sports Minister Laura Flessel, left, and European Parliament President Antonio Tajani speaking after a presentation of the Paris bid for the 2024 Olympics at the European Parliament in Brussels on June 6, 2017. (Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)

Among the factors pushing the 2024 games to Paris, one is more sentimental. 2024 would be the 100th anniversary of the last time Paris hosted the games, in 1924.

Another boils down to political climate, specifically the U.S. President. Andrei S. Markovits, Professor of European Politics at University of Michigan and an expert on sports and sports culture, told me back this winter that "There's absolutely no question that President Trump is a huge liability for L.A., big time."

Meanwhile, France has just elected Emmanuel Macron as its new President on a largely internationalist platform, as opposed to President Trump's "America First" rhetoric. Then there's Trump's proposed travel ban on citizens from majority-Muslim countries that the U.S. President continues to campaign for in the courts and in recent tweets.

Awarding the Olympics to Paris in 2024 and L.A. in 2028 would ensure that they do not occur under the Donald Trump administration. If President Trump wins a second term, 2024 would be his last full year in office.

This would be L.A.'s third time hosting the Olympics, after 1932 and 1984.